Warcraft: Darkshire
Year 25, Day 2
We found Commander Althea Ebonlocke speaking quietly with a group of three armed and armored men, their weapons stained with bits of putrid-looking flesh and rotting blood. She was a severe-looking woman of average height, her black hair hanging loosely down her back while two strands framed her face. She had a curved sword sheathed at her hip and a lantern hanging from her belt, sending flickering shadows across the whole group.
“...excellent work. You do your families proud. Now, go clean your equipment and then get some well earned rest. I have your next patrol scheduled for the day after tomorrow.”
The trio saluted clumsily, then staggered off. They looked utterly exhausted, but a hint of pride shone in their tired eyes. Their equipment was some of the simplest I’d seen in this world, with only the barest traces of magic worked into the metal, and it had clearly seen heavy use. One man’s sword had a number of large chips in it, while another’s armor was dented in several places.
Once all three watchmen were out of earshot, Althea sighed heavily. Her shoulders slumped and she tiredly rubbed her eyes. After several long seconds, she took a deep breath, straightened, squared her shoulders, and unhooked her lantern from her belt. Then she turned and finally noticed the three of us.
Her weary frown turned into a wary one and she regarded us coolly. “Ah, hello there. I don’t think I recognize you. You must be new around here. If you are just passing through, I suggest you stick to the roads and only travel by day. If your business is here in Darkshire, consider lending your abilities to the Night Watch. Our skill is unquestionable but our numbers are small.”
Glynda took a step forward, a polite smile on her lips. We’d decided ahead of time that she would be speaking for us at least for the foreseeable future. She was attractive, confident, and knew how to talk to people, while I looked too young and Kent too old. Plus, if someone decided to try to take out the obvious leader of our group, that wouldn’t be me.
She extended a hand towards Althea. “Glynda Goodwitch, adventurer. We were just passing through, but the guard at the gate says you’ve been having some trouble and pointed us towards you.”
Upon hearing Glynda call herself an adventurer, Althea’s expression brightened considerably and the two women shook hands. “Calling it just some trouble is a hell of an understatement. The fact that the town’s still standing is a damn miracle. Ever since the Stormwind garrison pulled out, it's been a downward spiral, just one thing after another. First it was just the undead and all the other normal dangers. Then it was more undead, and more powerful ones at that. And now, some of my men tell me there’s worgen out there somewhere, though luckily we haven’t run into too many of those beasts.”
Althea sighed heavily and reached up to brush a strand of hair behind her ear. “I can’t offer you much for your help––Darkshire’s never been a wealthy town and things haven’t gotten any better in recent times––but if you have any time you can spare to help us, we’d welcome it with open arms. Me and my Night Watch, we’re doing what we can, but there’s only so many of us to go around. I’ve got a dozen young men and twice that many retired veterans trying to protect a town of nearly four thousand.”
“We certainly wouldn’t say no to coin, but we’re primarily interested in information on the surrounding areas, the local monsters and undead, and the region in general.”
Althea jumped on that like a drowning woman. “Information? That, we’ve got. I have the best maps of Duskwood you’ll find anywhere, and my men keep me abreast of everything that’s happening around here. If you’re willing to spare some time to help us, I’d be happy to give you all that so you can do whatever it is you’re here for.”
Glynda smiled pleasantly. “I’m certain we can come to an arrangement.”
Watching Glynda work was always impressive. I theoretically knew how to negotiate, how to convince someone that they wanted what you wanted, but Glynda knew how to put those skills into practice. Less than an hour later, we left her office with a copy of her large, detailed map of the region, a stack of summarized reports, and the keys to a recently abandoned home near the edge of the village.
That last one hadn’t initially been part of the plan, but Glynda had enquired about accommodations and Althea had been happy to accommodate. I had a feeling that she was trying to make us stay here for as long as possible, which did make sense when I looked at it from her point of view. Giving us this place cost her nothing––it wasn’t like there were people flocking to buy property here––and potentially bought her a trio of additional defenders.
If we happened to be nearby when a group of undead or a swarm of giant spiders attacked the village, it would be much more likely that we’d help if our property was also on the line. That was probably why the house in question was on the south-westernmost edge of the village, since that was the direction from which most threats tended to approach.
In return for all that, we’d promised to deal with as many undead, giant spiders, worgen, and bandits as we could during our time exploring the area. She also asked us to try and deal with a powerful undead named Mor'Ladim that had been causing her watchmen trouble over the past several weeks, forcing them to give the Raven Hill Cemetery a wide berth during their patrols.
And that was basically it. She was genuinely desperate, near as I could tell. It didn’t seem as though any actual adventurers had passed through the area recently, and any threat the three of us dealt with was one less for her to worry about.
The house we’d been given was a quaint little two-story building, its outside clearly showing its age and disrepair. There was a hole in the roof, the windows were boarded over, and I wasn’t sure how much I trusted the stability of the logs and nails holding it all together.
The inside was a little better. The previous owner had left a lot of their furniture behind, though it was all rather worn, and it was clear that pains had been taken to keep the place livable. It was a little dusty, but nothing a few spells couldn’t handle.
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It was getting rather late and, as much as I wanted to get some lands bound now, stumbling around in the dark was just asking to get ambushed by something sneaky. I wasn’t too worried about any of the monsters that Althea had mentioned, but it was best to be cautious regardless. Althea suspected, but didn’t know for certain, that there may be a necromancer somewhere around Raven Hill. Apparently it would explain a number of the more dangerous undead her men had run into, though finding out that sometimes corpses around here just randomly rose from their graves was rather disquieting.
If there was a necromancer around, then I’d rather not come across them unprepared. I was very much interested in finding the necromancer in question––they’d make for an excellent Blueprint––but on my own terms. I wanted to be the one attacking from ambush, not the one being ambushed.
Instead, we’d decided to call it a night so we could go through all the information Althea had given us, decide on a course of action, make preparations, and then head out bright and early tomorrow morning.
Step one was making this place livable. Kent and I spent half an hour erecting wards, patching up holes, and making sure the building wasn’t going to collapse on top of us in our sleep. The building did in fact have a small basement, meaning that I’d be able to put up proper, long-term wards if I needed to, but that could wait for now. It would make a good opportunity to finally try out the ‘Consecrate with Blood’ spell I’d gained from creating the wards around my home back in Zatanna’s world, but I’d need some appropriate sacrifices to cast it.
Meanwhile, Glynda worked on cleaning up the inside of the building. Dust was cleared away, furniture moved back into its rightful places, and she unpacked some of the camping supplies I’d brought with me, none of us trusting the sorry excuse of a mattress in the house’s single bedroom.
Once that was taken care of, we moved onto going through our new maps and notes and planning for tomorrow. Annoyingly, Althea didn’t have much information on the one place in this area I was most interested in––Twilight Grove, the valley that housed the so-called Great Tree. The area was rather difficult to reach, surrounded by rocky hills and dense forest, and no real threats ever came from that direction so she mostly ignored it.
However, what she did have information on was interesting as well. There were two cemeteries in this forest, both of them overrun with undead. There was also an abandoned town called Raven Hill, a number of farmsteads, many of them abandoned, scattered throughout the forest, and a small town of ogres that mostly kept to themselves.
She also had notes on several types of undead, some skeletal and others resembling inferi, the different varieties of giant spiders that could be found nearby, and even some brief information about the worgen that she’d mentioned in passing and the powerful undead she’d asked us to kill.
By the time we finished with that, there was still some time left before I was ready to head to bed, and annoyingly I hadn’t copied nearly enough books from the library in Stormwind to keep myself busy. Even if I wasn’t planning to practice the magic myself, I was definitely going to duplicate a bunch of additional books when I returned to the city.
Thus, I finally decided that it was time to do something I’d been partially putting off for far longer than I should have. I was going to summon Cinder and some of the other less friendly Blueprints I’d created and see how usable they turned out to be. I had high hopes––if creating a Blueprint was enough to turn an enemy into an ally, it would be an even more valuable skill than I’d believed initially––but I was also ready to be disappointed. I was pretty sure the copies I’d summoned wouldn’t be actively hostile at the very least, and I’d be able to swiftly dispel them if they were, so there was no real harm in doing so now.
Having to imperious my own copies to make use of them would be rather irritating.
I decided to start with Cinder herself. She would be the most useful of the lot if she proved amenable to following orders, and also had some influence over her two subordinates that could potentially come in handy if things worked out. We moved down to the house’s small cellar and Glynda and Kent flanked me as I called on my land bonds.
Black from Slaughtered Swamp, Red from Beacon, and two mana of any color from the Tower and the Memorial. Cinder appeared in front of me looking much like she had when we’d fought her, rather than the withered corpse I’d last seen in the wake of Amber’s healing. She wore a short, shoulderless red dress held up by a strap that looped around her neck. There was a belt around her waist with a black purse at her hip, and her neck-length black hair hung down to cover one of her eyes.
Glynda’s grip on her riding crop tightened as she looked at the three of us one by one. There was hostility in her posture, and her fingers were curled as though holding a weapon. Then she relaxed slightly and bowed her head.
“Even with the powers of a Maiden, overwhelming numbers are certainly overwhelming.”
Glynda snorted. “Any three of us would have been plenty to deal with you and your team. We didn’t need to resort to Grimm tactics.”
Cinder shot Glynda a withering look. “In your dreams, perhaps. I know what I’m capable of.”
“Ozpin and I would have been more than enough. Qrow would have taken all three of you apart by himself if he hadn’t needed to protect Amber at the same time. Need I go on?”
“I could have dealt with––”
“Silence,” I ordered sharply, and Cinder complied, though she clearly wasn’t happy about it. “You two can argue about what could have been some other time. Right now, I need to decide if you’re going to be useful as an asset, or as fodder. I’m rather curious if my summons can serve as human sacrifices.”
Cinder stiffened slightly. She clearly didn’t like the idea of dying. “I served Salem for the promise of power, and she delivered. Can you do the same?” she challenged.
I shrugged. “My powers are the same as those that first gave Salem her immortality and created all of Remnant. I can give you life on countless planes, each with their own powers and secrets to claim. If you prove yourself worth the effort, I’m certain I can make you more than anything you could have achieved on Remnant. And even if you are injured or crippled, I can bring you back as good as new as many times as I please.”
Cinder considered my words for a long moment. “And will I have the chance to do more than just serve? To live my life as more than a mere tool?”
I shrugged again. “I don’t see why not. As long as you follow orders and don’t cause trouble for me, I have no problem leaving you summoned and free to do as you please most of the time.”
Cinder closed her eyes. Then she knelt, bowing her head. “Then I shall serve and obey.”
Glynda didn’t look happy about it, but she said nothing as we looked down at Cinder. I smiled widely. It looked like I might have to come to an arrangement with some of my ‘Legendary’ summons one at a time, but that was very workable. Perhaps not all of them would be as amenable as Cinder had proved to be, but this was certainly a good sign.
Next up, Count Vertigo. With any luck, I’d be able to get access to whatever money and assets he had stashed away in case things turned sour. There was no way a noble wouldn’t be smart enough to do something like that before engaging in such blatant criminal activity.